CBOE Stock Exchange, LLC (CBSX) is owned by CBOE and a consortium of financial entities. CBSX operates as a facility of CBOE and uses CBOE's technology platform, which enables traders to access equity liquidity, to secure favorable prices and to reduce the cost of trading. CBSX offers trading in more than 7,700 equities and exchange traded funds (ETFs) listed on U.S. securities markets.

The exchange continues to provide an efficient venue for cross-product trading, catering to options traders looking to facilitate their stock trading and hedging activities. In addition, the exchange serves traditional broker-dealers and proprietary trading firms. CBSX also innovates in pricing, which has enabled the exchange to carve out a unique niche in the crowded, and highly competitive, securities industry.

2010

Trading volume at CBSX achieved a new all-time high during 2010 as 5.7 billion shares traded, an increase of 43 percent versus the previous record of 3.9 billion shares traded in 2009, and the third consecutive year that CBSX posted a year-over-year trading increase. Average daily volume for the year was 22.6 million shares, compared with 15.8 million shares per day the previous year. The three busiest months in CBSX history occurred during 2010, including a monthly record of 1.1 billion shares traded during August. Also in August, CBSX experienced the busiest trading day in its history when 118.8 million shares changed hands on August 24. The August milestones marked the first times ever at CBSX that total monthly volume topped the one billion-benchmark and single-day volume surpassed the one hundred million-level.

CBSX adjusted the pricing structure of its “maker-taker” market model during the year by instituting an innovative liquidity rebate. In traditional maker-taker market models, providers of liquidity to the marketplace are rewarded with a credit, while takers that remove liquidity from the marketplace are charged a fee. CBSX’s innovative program was designed to work in an opposite manner, aiming to incentivize liquidity takers to make CBSX their initial order routing destination. Specifically, at CBSX, liquidity takers receive a rebate of 14 cents per 100 shares—the highest in the securities industry -- while liquidity makers are charged a fee of 18 cents per 100 shares. The program was introduced on a limited basis in August, expanded in September, and rolled out to all CBSX products in October.